Tardebigge

Tardebigge is a town three miles to the Northwest of Redditch, famous for the 36 locks that raise the Birmingham to Worcester Canal 220 feet ofver the Lickey Ridge. Two wharves on the canal were used to load and unload goods, one of them still visible in the picture. Also there is Hewell Lane, where three miles down to the right gets renamed Hewell Road and was where the Royal Enfield factory was located. The canal had its heyday in the first half of the 1800's, since in 1859 the railway arrived in Redditch and made the canal uncompetitive. George Townsend set up his needle making mill, which would later become the Enfield Cycle Co in 1851. So it is conceivable that goods for the mill were transported through the canal, although it should be remembered that Townsend's original factory was in Hunt End, not in Hewell Road, which a bit further removed to the South of the canal. Here is a view of the canal in Alcester Road, where it goes subterranean for a while. The wharf is around the bend to the right,